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DoDEA School Health Services Manual 2942.0 Volume 1 Revised: 2016 DRAFT
student, the DoDEA employee who suspects child abuse or neglect must report the
suspected abuse to the local FAP and the school principal or designee. If the principal
is suspected of abuse, contact the district superintendent.
A nurse may form a suspicion of child abuse as part of a routine assessment of
student injuries. When he or she hears an allegation of child abuse from a student or
begins to suspect child abuse, the nurse must take two actions.
1.
The allegation or suspicion must immediately be reported to the local FAP
and the school principal or designee.
2.
The nurse should discontinue questioning about the alleged or suspected
child abuse and focus on an assessment of the nature and extent of the
student’s injuries and document those injuries in the student’s health
record.
Assessments of a student’s injuries must be documented in the student health
record, but that record may not reflect a suspicion or allegation (nor that the referral
was due to such suspicion or an allegation) of child abuse. The student health record
shall document only the student’s injuries. For example, if the student is emotionally
distraught and talks about his or her alleged abuse, the nurse may document the
student’s emotional condition (and any other physical injuries) but not the identity of
the alleged assailant or the nurse’s or the student’s suspicion that the act was one of
child abuse. Limit documentation to objective information and do NOT include
subjective ones.
Because information pertaining to suspected or alleged child abuse is confidential
and its disclosure could interfere with investigations into the alleged abuse, such
information must not be disclosed to anyone else without permission of the principal,
superintendent or the DoDEA Office of the General Counsel.
DoDEA personnel shall not investigate the suspected abuse. The nurse is not to
question the student about the facts of the allegation or seek to confirm his or her own
suspicion. Nor should the nurse depart from his or her routine injury assessment
protocol, such as taking photos of injuries when such photos are not routinely taken to
document an injury. Photos taken in these cases constitute investigation, which is
within the purview of authorized investigating officials, usually the FAP and/or law
enforcement.
Reference:
DoDEA Regulation 2050.9; Family Advocacy Program Process and Procedures for
Reporting Incidents of Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect.